Team Paramaribo

Attendance and Absences

DCPS is transitioning to a new system for tracking excused absences. Starting September 8th, parents and caregivers must submit excuse notes for attendance through Aspen GO—a mobile friendly version of Aspen Parent Portal, and the same platform used for school enrollment and reenrollment. Please visit the DCPS Attendance webpage for guidance on how to submit an excuse note.

Save The Dates!

September 17th: Back to School Night
September 27th: 6th Grade Barbecue
October 13th: No School, Indigenous People's Day

Classroom Supplies Wishlists

We are so incredibly thankful to everyone who has sent in supplies so far - you are all truly appreciated!

If you would like to donate to your student's classrooms, here are the Amazon wishlist links:

Ms. Wesselhoft's Wishlist

Mx. Gomez's Wishlist

Mr/x. Winston and Ms. Clark's Wishlist

Ms. Sagan's Wishlist

Ms. Sun's Wishlist

Any donations can be sent to the school with this format:

Teacher Name

3815 Fort Dr NW

Washington, DC 20016

English and Language Arts with Mr. Winston

Hello, team Paramaribo!

This was a wonderful week in the world of English & Language Arts (ELA). The week started with our scholars completing their ELA MAP Assessments on Monday and Tuesday. I am so proud of everyone’s endurance through such a lengthy exam! After the assessment, we continued our work in Unit 1, “Characters Who Grow and Change.” On Thursday, we finished our short story for the year (Home by Hena Khan). We concluded the week in the classroom by completing an independent writing practice where students responded to prompt by citing textual evidence from Home.

Next week, will complete our next two readings from the unit (The Scholarship Jacket by Marta Salinas and Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan). We’ll also have a short, in-class vocabulary quiz on Thursday, September 18th. The quiz will contain a mix of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. We will use time in class to review the unit’s vocabulary terms and provide study tips for the quiz throughout the week. For reference, I’ve pasted the vocabulary terms and their meanings below:

Burden: something heavy and hard to carry; a hard responsibility
Despair: the feeling of having no hope
Dignity: the quality of being worthy of honor and respect
Reluctant: not excited to do something
Reputation: the way people think about someone or something
Trait: a quality that makes something different from something else
Transform: to change completely

Lastly, we will have our first Summative Assessment on Monday, September 22nd. Students will read a passage to answer multiple choice questions and a long response question.

In the meantime, please continue encouraging your students to read for at least 20 minutes a night.

World Geography and Cultures with Ms. Wesselhoft

This week in Geography students got to learn new geography terms and apply new map skills. Next week, I will be out on Monday, so I will be leaving an assignment about map skills for them to complete. On Tuesday, we will check their Scale homework and do a brief review before they take two formative assessments on vocabulary and map skills. We will go over the formative assessments and do a review the following day. Then, students will take their first geography Summative: Unit 1: Map Skills Test.

Math with Mx. Gomez

This past week students did great dividing with decimals! We could all use some more practice with multiplying decimals and will see this in our upcoming homework next week.

We have a Formative on Monday! Please practice multiplying, dividing, adding and subtracting with decimals with your mathematician this weekend!

We have begun working with fractions and the iReady Topic that has been assigned for this weekend is also on fractions!

Math Acceleration at Deal

At Deal, all 6th graders take the iReady diagnostic to determine their math placement. Based on their performance, students may be placed in:

Accelerated Math 6 – the standard curriculum for students not placed in Math 7.

Math 7 – requires an overall iReady score of Early 6 (500 or higher) AND a Mid 6 score in Number and Operations.

Math 8 – requires an overall iReady placement of Grade 8.

Math placement can often be a stressful topic for families, and please know that it is simply a snapshot of their current math skills. We are all working on our growth and we at Deal believe that every student can find success in math!

Earth and Space Science with Ms. Sagan

Hello scientists!

This past week students learned about how scientists carry out investigations by making observations and inferences, learning about different kinds of data, and learning the steps of the scientific method.

Next week, we will dive in to scientific investigations, learning about hypotheses and testable questions. Students will have homework assigned on Monday that will be due on Tuesday – feel free to help them through it using the many incredible resources across the internet. Later next week, students will complete an experiment using tennis balls to show how independent variables affect dependent variables.

On Monday, September 22nd, students will complete their first summative of the year – the Scientific Method post-test. They will be given a study guide (extra copies have been posted to Canvas) and access to a study blooket (also on Canvas). I highly recommend that students use the Blooket to study!

Roots!

This upcoming week's roots (Week 3) are:

Students should study for Roots Quiz 1.3 on Friday, September 19th. Roots 1.3 are:

Epi = on, upon (think epicenter, epilogue)
Sub = under (think submarine, submerge)
Hyper = over (think hyperactive, hypersonic)
Pre = before (think preschool, prevent)
Exi, exo = out, outer (think exit, exoskeleton)

Keepers: uni, bi, tri, post, gen, poly

Notes from MLL Support

Last week students finished MAP Reading testing during extended 1st period from Monday to Tuesday. After testing, students continued with Reading Fluency Diagnostic and MAZE in stations while learning other Parts of Speech in mini lessons. Next week, we will begin READ 180 Unit 0 based on MAP Reading data.

Ms. Sun’s Amazon Wishlist

World Languages Newsletter

Read the weekly Deal World Languages newsletter to find out more about the happenings in Chinese, French and Spanish classes, including units of study and upcoming assignments and assessments.

https://app.smore.com/u/patricia.balestra4

Library Corner

Meet Deal's librarian Mr. Reichlen! Learn about the great things happening this month at Deal's library. Check out great books and media, read about events at Deal and around the city, and stay connected with Deal's Library:

https://secure.smore.com/n/ep68k

Past IB Learner Profiles

Each month our school community celebrates one of our IB Learner Traits. The team teachers discuss who to nominate and chooses two students from Team Paramaribo who have demonstrated this characteristic in all of our classes. Stay tuned as we continue to celebrate all year, and make sure to shout out our past learners!